Paco Del Bosque
Background Elise and Enric met by chance during their families vacation in Greece. It was - they'd both readily agree - love at first sight. Despite their different heritages, they managed to get along well enough in the little, somewhat broken English they knew, and hung to the similarities of their mother tongues to decipher the rest of each other's sentences. They shocked everyone when they eloped, barely a week after having met each other, and got married in a small church on the island of Crete. The decision to move to England had been almost immediate, born more out of the fact that English was the one language they had in common, more than any other realistic expectations. They were only children themselves, but have always dreamed of having a large family, and they set out to meet that goal from their first year of marriage. Material difficulties, trouble properly settling in in such a foul temperate after coming from sunny places, made them consider more seriously the birth of their next children. They knew they wanted many, but they also wanted to have with what to feed and clothe them, so longer pauses were made between them. An unexpected inheritance on the death of an uncle on the part of Enric's meant that their material woes at least had been solved, and after over a decade of staying in Britain, they had both decided they had settled in more than nicely, and their last four children were born much closer apart. The seventh and last child of the Del Bosques, Francis Alonso Del Bosque grew up as the overprotected, over pampered, overindulged baby of the family. It definitely helped that he had a sweet, accommodating nature from the start, and a natural inclination to being quite helpless, traits that only got worse as no one in the family had the heart to try and toughen him up. He had always had someone to take care of him and direct him down an appropriate path in life, and Paco had been more than happy to follow those instructions as it saved time from doubting his own decisions. Always referred to as 'Paco' he grew up thinking that was his actual name for a very long time, and he prefers it to his full first name, which is 'Francis'. Family Elise and Enric Del Bosque - '''It would be fair to say that Paco had always looked at his parents as more distant than his siblings. He was loved by all, and he loved them all back, but his birth had been not without difficulties as Elise was already quite old by the time she had him, and she had a long period of recovery after her last child. His siblings had taken care of him in the meantime, and he had always been more attracted to their energetic natures than the more subdued one of his parents. They had six other children to worry about, while his siblings were under no obligation to like everyone equally and had quite obviously picked favorites. By and large, he had been it, because he was so much less demanding than Fleur, less troublesome than Nando by a fair stretch, and didn't have Renny's stormy attitude, so while his parents' attentions weren't always directed towards him, he always had at least one other person looking out for him. '''Francesa 'Cissy' Del Bosque - Leroy Twenty years Paco's senior, Cissy had always been more like a mother, or rather a stern aunt, to her younger siblings, and to Paco in particular. Neither of them could help it, really, their nature made their roles in the other's lives quite clear. It didn't help that Cissy found out she could never have any children of her own a few years after Paco was born. She felt that after growing up in such a large family, motherhood was expected of her, and she loved doing what was expected. In this matter however, she had always felt torn, as she considered she had more than paid her dues to the human race by looking after her siblings, and, secretly, the news brought with them a measure of relief, more than anything else. That did mean that she paid a lot closer attention to how Fleur and Paco were brought up, but where her sister snubbed her efforts, Paco was found wholly complacent, if a little forgetful. It was clear from the start that he wanted to please her, just as clear at the fact that he couldn't. An extraordinarily beautiful woman, intelligent and resourceful, Cissy had always found her family somewhat lacking in higher virtues. Because of her rather unkind thoughts, she feels guilty, and has a deeply rooted sense of obligation and duty towards them. She loves them in her own, somewhat distant way, but she also feels that they'd be much better off if they just did what they were told every once in a while. She married a Frenchman, second son of a Duke, by the name of Terrence Leroy, and although they have a house in Britain as well, they live most of the year in France, where the climate is more forgiving, and - as Terry would explain whenever his wife isn't around - the wine tastes better. Faust Del Bosque Seventeen years older than Paco, Faust is the second oldest, second Ravenclaw in the family. Perhaps as a consequence of having been born so soon after Cissy who could be said to have hoarded all the opinion sharing abilities, or more likely, as a self-defense mechanism, he is less eager to share his point of view, or indeed speak up around the house. Normally, he can be found reading, carefully ignoring what's going on around him. He's very closed off. In fact, he's the best at keeping secrets of all of them, and because of that, he often found himself held in the greatest confidence by each of them in turn. Everyone knows that whatever secrets they share with Faust, however major or trivial, will not be shared. The gossip chain within the household always ends with him. In turn, he never says anything about himself, driving his mother, and the noisier ones completely insane. Paco thinks it's because he's an Unspeakable and keeping secrets is in their jobs' description, but no one else is willing to buy that. They know next to nothing about him, no one has been invited to his house, and while he keeps in touch, and joins family reunions, he never gives more than generic answers. Fleur made it her project to get him to open up, at least to her, but so far she had been unsuccessful. No amount of goading, or emotional blackmail did any good. Paco remembers him as the one who always read aloud to him, and watched over him whenever he found himself deserted by the rest. Faust is gay, something he hasn't told anyone in the family, and he has been in a relationship for over ten years with Robert Davies, a fellow coworker. It's not exactly clear, not even to him, why he's kept quiet about this, but considering he's so far been keeping quiet about everything, it just seemed like the natural course of events. Robert doesn't seem eager to meet his family, and he hasn't met his, either and they have been quite happy with how things are to think about changing them. Fabian 'Fab' Del Bosque Born eleven years before Paco, Fabian had always felt like he was more of an only child. The age differences between him and everyone else are greatest, he's born in the middle of what the Del Bosques characterized as a dry-spell, or rather not knowing whether they wanted anymore children. Fabian had always tried to be independent, avoiding the guidance of his older siblings, and skirting his responsibilities with the younger ones. Despite that, he's the favored son. Although never having been a prefect, he added the Head Boy badge to his laurels in his seventh year. He was also the Slytherin seeker and captain, and always managed to win the House Cup for the snakes. He continued his career in Quidditch upon leaving school, and made money on the side by occasionally modelling. He's now the captain of Puddlemere United. Deeply charismatic and sociable, witty and charming, Fab(ulous) has no trouble getting people to like him, even if those who know him best are aware he's not all sugar, spice and everything nice. He's selfish and contemptuous, and does not hesitate to use your failings against you. His siblings often cannot make up their mind whether they love him to pieces, or they'd rather hang him upside down by a tree branch. He tends to say hurtful things in arguments, but not even the sourpuss Cissy can stay mad at him for very long, as he always makes sure to ingratiate himself back in everyone's hearts. While he doesn't spare people as a rule, he does have a soft spot for Paco, who he thinks is already unfortunate enough without his fabulous brother adding to the pile. He's very protective of him, and takes his side in familial arguments, but that's mostly because assaulting Paco is a lot like punching a baby unicorn in the face, minus the horn that could possibly scratch you. He's absolutely harmless, and in Fab's opinion also helpless, and he makes sure he has someone there to fight his battles for him as often as he can. Once Fabian decides to love someone, it's forever. He doesn't give his affection lightly, he couldn't give a toss about his teammates, and even some members of his family, but once he realizes someone is worth it, he is all in. He's currently married to Lorena Del Bosque, and they're awaiting their first child. Florent 'Renny' Del Bosque Despite being older than his brother by ten and a half months, Florent was sorted second into Gryffindor, because Nando's name was first in the alphabet. It's still a bit of a sore spot for him, as he used to think that he had the right of age. Born four and a half years before Paco, he feels like the eldest brother, despite the three that preceded him. Because of that, he occasionally tries to act responsible, but never quite manages it. For one, Nando is there to provide motive, and secondly, his own hotheadedness stands in the way of his maturity. He's bad-tempered and prone to sulking - none quite the characteristics for the poster eldest child. He tried out for the Quidditch team in school, and though good enough for amateur sports, Renny was aware he was nowhere near as good as Fabian so his dreams of becoming a world renowned Quidditch star were quickly stomped on. He is aware he's not as good as his older siblings, and often envious because of it. He found a secret relief in pushing Paco around when they were younger, but he knew that kind of behavior was wrong, and worked assiduously to correct it, without anyone actually having to prompt it from him. There's goodness in him, there's just having to get around that scowl to get to it. He's brave, foolishly so, and, especially with his Irish twin by his side, he thinks he's invincible. Not the sort of sentiment one should experience when working with magical creatures, but so far they've been lucky enough to avoid gross injury. He has been in a more or less long-term relationship with a law enforcement officer, Cara Jones, but he's not that hot on the idea of committing himself to just one person for the rest of his life. Ferdinand 'Nando' Del Bosque Nando is three years older than Paco, and less than a year younger than Renny, which allowed for them both to leave for Hogwarts at the same time. In Nando's opinion, that experience brought the two of them very close, and he always seeks his older brother out at family reunions, as well as the rest of the time. Among all the siblings, Nando and Renny moved out of their parents' home and got a flat together in London. They react after each other's queues, so they tend to have the same opinions about most things, including their siblings. Because of that, they tend to feel it's them against everyone else, and with a family like theirs, it's hard to change that point of view. Being aware Renny is taciturn when left to his own devices, Nando makes a constant effort to lighten his brother's mood, something that bleeds into his relationships with everyone else as well. He's a bit of a clown, a bit of a thrill seeker, he thinks that life's there to be lived, and often doing the responsible thing isn't on his bucket list. If he's uncertain about something, he looks to Renny for support, being similar to Paco in that respect, but where everyone could step on his younger brother, Nando lets only Renny tell him what to do, and even that could backfire in the other man's face. Unlike Renny, he never wanted to surpass his siblings in anything, and never felt inadequate when he tried and failed at something. If there's a black sheep in the family, then he's probably it, but it honestly doesn't bother him to think of it. He has an on and off relationship with a healer that works in the Creature Induces Injuries ward, but more often than not, it's only on when they're supposed to visit each other's families. He enjoys the idea that he has a sort of girlfriend, but he's still allowed to see other people, and in his own way, is trying not to screw this up by going overboard with his freedom. Fleur Del Bosque She is one year older than Paco, but you couldn't tell by her behavior. People always thought she was the baby of the family, because of her constantly clamoring for attention. Paco was the most abused in this situation, as they grew up together, and besides, he would just let her do whatever she pleased to him. She hadn't been nearly half as successful with everyone else. Most of the other boys find her affections over the top, and she could never get along well with Cissy, and her narrow world view of how a young lady should act. Fleur never wanted to grow up to be a lady, it sounded so terribly dull. She's easily distracted, and easily bored, and tends to act like a spoiled brat even as a fully grown adult. She is vivacious, but is very careful not to take any unduly risks. She doesn't mind watching others take them, though, and often thinks that she'd have been happier had gladiator matches still existed. She has a taste for other people's pain, but only those she doesn't care much about. She'd never dream of hurting Paco, although some of her other siblings aren't quite so lucky. Her attitude makes even Paco worry about her, but Fleur never really appreciated being advised, so he knows not to try. She fancies herself as her siblings' confessor, especially in matters of love, and always ends up feeling genuinely hurt when they don't run to her as soon as they get a crush on someone. She wouldn't appreciate it either if they wanted to know exactly who she was dating and how they made her feel, but those kind of nuances are too subtle for her to bother with, as she thinks that what she wants ought to trump everything else. Hogwarts Years As a rule, Paco was liked by pretty much everyone. He was a warm, friendly person without being too pushy. They knew he had siblings at school, siblings whose fearsome reputation usually kept him out of harm's way. He got sorted into Hufflepuff, a house he absolutely adored, and felt entirely at home in. His friends were from all houses, and he was polite and kind to everyone he met. He was difficult to be made fun of, because he'd either not get the joke, or laugh along with you, so most people gave up trying to ridiculize him quite early on. He was always willing to help, even if all he could do was sit quietly besides you. His grades had never been quite stellar, he was afraid of some classes, but he was hard working enough to pass all, if not brilliantly, at least still retaining the capacity to hold his head high. He preferred Herbology and Potions, and exceled at healing charms. While not leaving any life altering impressions on anyone, Paco had the ability be remembered as entirely harmless, and always nice. His entire attitude is one of unobtrusiveness and it had definitely paid off for him during school, having never got himself in trouble like some of his older siblings were prone to do, and while he was a disappointment to the fans of the aforementioned relations, his calming influence eventually neutralized any resentment. Relationships MP Involvement Quotes See also *Gold Pocket Watch Members Category:OMApedia A to Z Category:OMAdians Category:Wizard Category:Hufflepuff Category:Halfblood Category:Copper Category:St. Mungos